Ad publisher performance and mitigation of click fraud

ABSTRACT

The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising architecture in the advertising space, e.g., for ranking publishers of ads and/or mitigating click-fraud. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions that occur between a customer and a merchant as well as an indication of which ad publisher made the referral. Accordingly, the performance of an ad displayed by a publisher can be assessed, and, e.g., employed in the pricing scheme for displaying the ad. The ad publisher performance ratio can be relative to other ad publishers and can be employed with a pay-per-click, pay-per impression, or other similar billing structures.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 60/764,618, filed Feb. 2, 2006, entitled “A COMPETITIVE PERSPECTIVEON AD-AUCTION.” This application is also related to co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. Nos. (MSFTP1375USA)______ entitled “EMPLOYINGCUSTOMER POINTS TO CONFIRM TRANSACTIONS”, (MSFTP1391US)______ entitled“MERCHANT RANKINGS IN AD REFERRALS”, (MSFTP1392US)______ entitled “ADTARGETING AND/OR PRICING BASED ON CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR”,(MSFTP1393US)______ entitled “SEARCH ENGINE SEGMENTATION”, filed on______, ______, ______, and ______, respectively. The entireties ofthese applications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One of the fundamental principles of a free market economy is thatresources (e.g., products, services, money . . . ) will tend to beredistributed by voluntary transactions in a manner that maximizeswealth and/or utility to all parties involved in the transactions. Forexample, the price paid for a particular resource in a voluntarytransaction is representative of the value of that resource to eachparty. Thus, monetary transactions provide a common measuring stick forcomparing the relative values that different persons attach toparticular resources. As such there is a natural tendency forcompetition between both buyers and sellers to efficiently allocate theresources and create markets that can be measured and analyzed in termsof money.

Of course different individuals will prioritize the value of resourcesin different ways. For example, one individual may favor higher qualitywhile another favors lower cost, e.g., automobiles vary widely in priceand quality, but ultimately, voluntary transactions between the buyerand the seller will ensure markets work efficiently from theperspectives of both supply and demand because all resources will tendto go where they are most highly valued.

Unfortunately, this efficiency can be disrupted in certain situations,such as when the value of a resource is detached from the market forthat resource. Such a condition has arisen, for example, in the searchengine space. Search engines are generally free for the end-user, yet itis the advertisers who pay for the use of the search engine by theend-user. Therefore, the value of the resource (search engine) isdetached from the market for that resource. This unfortunate conditioncan also affect Search Engine Marketers (SEMs). SEMs are those whomarket advertising space on search engines to advertisers. SEMs areconcerned with locating, researching, submitting, and/or positioning anadvertisement (e.g., for a product, service, website, . . . ) within theproper search engines for maximum exposure and effectiveness. SEMs mayalso include the function of choosing the target keywords and keywordphrases for a website's meta tags, or some range of marketing techniquesrequired to make the advertisement visible on search engines and/ordirectories so as to attract visits from a target audience.

Advertising is generally considered to be a capable means for producingrevenue in most commercial markets or settings. Recently, the Internetand, specifically, Internet search engines have shown that they can be aviable alternative to conventional advertising. Accordingly, advertisersare increasingly looking toward SEMs and search engines to advertisetheir products and services. However, in this situation, advertisers areseeking markets for their advertisements whereas the target audience(e.g., a potential consumer) of those advertisements is seeking theperceived value of the underlying search engine. Hence, there is aseparation between the value of the advertisement to the consumer (e.g.,price, quality, . . . ) from the market for that resource.

One reason for this situation is because advertisers must pay for theadvertisements whereas the users of search engines do not pay forexposure to the advertisements, so the users are not inclined to regardthe value of the advertisements when choosing a search engine. Forexample, considering the user of a search engine is not likely to beusing the service to find advertisements, the underlying value of anadvertisement is not driven by the market for such. Hence, unlike theadvertiser, the search engine provider is not motivated to obtainadvertisements that are highly valued from the viewpoint of the user,even though advertisements may be the only source of revenue to thesearch engine provider. Rather, search engine providers are inclined toonly accept advertisements from advertisers who paid the most for thatspace. In essence, there is no longer an effective price competitionmechanism because search engines do not need highly valuedadvertisements in order to maintain or increase market share amongusers. Moreover, this market inequity has been further exacerbated by aneffective oligopoly among search engine competitors that has begunremoving alternative markets. This situation undermines the advertiser'sability to respond to price competition among the search engineproviders.

This is an inefficient scheme for consumers because they may not bepresented with the most highly valued ads. It is also inefficient forsearch engine competitors, because, while ad sales may be the primary(or only) source of revenue, this revenue source is driven by the searchengine's market share among users, which is not conventionally enhancedby ad space. Similarly it is inefficient for advertisers who areincreasingly faced with either higher costs and/or dwindling userexposure to ads without regard to the merits of the advertisements.

Currently, there is no good way to unite the value a consumer places onan ad with the price the advertiser must pay the host of the add inorder to form a viable market dynamic. Recent attempts have been made toprovide rankings for ad space. One such system in use today is simply toauction the ad space to the highest bidder. Of course this method simplymaintains the status quo, leaving advertisers with no bargaining powerother than money, and depriving consumers of markets for highly valuedads from advertisers with low marketing budgets. Another way of rankingad space is to calculate a click-through rate (CTR).

The CTR is an estimate on the probability that a user clicks an ad ifthe ad is shown. Generally, the CTR is based upon prior click history ofthe ad, yet oftentimes, an advertiser only pays the host of the ad(e.g., a search engine provider) when a user actually clicks on theadvertisement, for example pay-per-click (PPC). In another example, theuser can be rewarded for clicking on the ad instead of or in addition torewarding the host. However, these schemes inherently rely on the notionthat the value of the ad to the user will be fairly represented based onthe number of users who click it, and thus, it would be an appropriatemeasure of the value of the ad space to the advertiser to be employedwith the CTR estimate. Unfortunately, in both case, this could lead to“click fraud” wherein both the user and the host are motivated to defeatthe advertiser's goals. For example a user is induced to merely click onads, either for the user's own gain or for the gain of the host (e.g.when the host provides a “kickback” to the user), rather than for a bonafide interest in the advertiser or for a genuine desire to even considerthe advertisement. Accordingly, for CTR to remain a viable rankingmeasure, click fraud should be mitigated. Another scheme employed bysearch engines is to reward users for search activity. However, thiscould lead to a similar type of activity fraud wherein the users mightsearch only for the sake of the reward rather than for genuine reasons.Such search activity is not very useful to attract advertising dollars,and should be mitigated as well.

Conventional ranking systems tend to rank ads only from the perspectiveof the underlying host, with no good mechanism to account for the valuesand behavior of the advertisers and consumers. Accordingly, there is astrong need to provide a way of ranking ad space that diversifies thebargaining power among the actors, sets competitive market dynamics andre-introduces efficient price-competition to SEMs and the web searchengine market.

Additionally, in the Internet search engine space, there does not existan ability to monitor transactions between an advertiser and a consumer,even if the consumer was directed to the advertiser's website by thesearch engine and the transaction took place entirely online. Unlikewell-known auction websites that require a great deal of personalinformation and legal contracting, the search engine providers typicallydo not care if consumers are satisfied with an advertiser as long as thetop dollar is paid for the ad space. Conversely, consumers do notcurrently view search engine providers as an outlet to settle disputesbecause they cannot monitor the transactions. Thus, a way for searchengine providers to confirm transaction and react to feedback anddisputes between consumers and advertisers would be of great benefit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the claimed subjectmatter in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of theclaimed subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview of theclaimed subject matter. It is intended to neither identify key orcritical elements of the claimed subject matter nor delineate the scopeof the claimed subject matter. Its sole purpose is to present someconcepts of the claimed subject matter in a simplified form as a preludeto the more detailed description that is presented later.

The claimed subject matter disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspectthereof, comprises a mechanism that can confirm transactions withoutexpressly monitoring those transactions. To the accomplishment of theforegoing and other related ends, transactions can be confirmed basedupon feedback. Conventionally, in the Internet advertising space,monitoring transactions has not been feasible because from theperspective of the search engine provider (SEP), the transactionoccurred remotely between two third-parties, with the provider actingonly as an agent to unite the buyer and seller. As such there was noconvenient way to monitor those types of transactions. However, if theagent were to receive feedback from either of the third parties, thiscould be evidence that a transaction did occur. For example, if avisitor to the search engine provider website (SEW) clicked on amerchant's ad and proceeded to purchase from the merchant, then feedbackfrom either the visitor or the merchant could constitute a verificationof the purchase.

In accordance with another aspect of the claimed subject matter, thefeedback can include valuable information regarding the experience ofthe transaction. For example, if the parties are satisfied, thenpositive feedback can be provided or inferred, whereas if one of theparties is dissatisfied, feedback can be negative. Accordingly, thisfeedback can be applied to rankings for merchants and/or customers, andused in a variety of ways. Moreover, this feedback can be employed,e.g., in connection with a customer satisfaction rating, which can be afactor in determining an advertiser ranking (e.g., the quality of theadvertiser based upon customer satisfaction). The advertiser ranking canbe used in connection with a valuation and/or pricing mechanism in orderto determine an equitable amount to charge an advertiser for advertisingon the SEW.

For example, certain convention search engine providers allowadvertisers to bid for ad space, and the valuation (e.g., the amountcharged) is simply a price-per click (PPC) bid. Another example is afunction that multiplies the bid and the click-through-rate (CTR) toobtain the valuation. However, in both of these cases, the advertiserdoes not have an effective price-control mechanism, and further byemploying CTR, the mechanism becomes susceptible to click fraud. Inaccordance with the claimed subject matter, a new valuation mechanismcan be employed that utilizes, e.g., a function that is the product ofthe bid, CTR and advertiser ranking. This mechanism can give advertisersa price control mechanism and an incentive to satisfy customers, as wellas mitigating click fraud because only customers who completetransactions with the advertiser can contribute to the advertiserranking (e.g., by way of customer satisfaction feedback).

Additionally or alternatively, in another aspect, a mechanism fordistributing points can be employed. The points can be utilized both asan incentive to merchants to advertise on the SEW as well as anincentive for customers to buy from the merchant by way of the SEW. Forexample, the points can be issued by the SEP to merchants who advertiseon the SEW, e.g., based upon advertising dollars the merchant spends. Inturn, the merchants can distribute those points to customers that buyfrom them and the points can be redeemable for value by the SEP. Inaddition, the SEP can keep track of the points in a “points account”associated with individual customers as another means of confirming thata transaction occurred (e.g., the customer normally would not havereceived points unless a purchase was made from a merchant advertisingon SEW). It should be appreciated that the points can also be issueddirectly to consumers by the SEP, e.g., when the customer buys directlyfrom the SEP and/or provides feedback.

In accordance with another aspect of the claimed subject matter, thepoints customers redeem to the SEP can be used to purchase products,services, memberships, etc. offered by the SEP as well as promotions bythird parties. In one aspect, the product offered can benon-transferable software in which a licensing key can be linked toinformation pertaining to the customer. As an additional advantage, theinformation obtained by virtue of feedback and/or points can be used toimplement a frequent buyer program to provide more incentives tocustomers. As can be seen, the SEP has a strong incentive to obtainfeedback from customers (e.g., to get reliable data about the quality ofmerchants). Accordingly, the SEP can optionally require the customer togive feedback about the underlying transaction when points are redeemedto the SEP.

The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detailcertain illustrative aspects of the claimed subject matter. Theseaspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways inwhich the principles of the claimed subject matter may be employed andthe claimed subject matter is intended to include all such aspects andtheir equivalents. Other advantages and novel features of the claimedsubject matter will become apparent from the following detaileddescription of the claimed subject matter when considered in conjunctionwith the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that ranks advertisers and/or consumers andfacilitates equitable use of advertising space.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates a more detailed system thatranks advertisers and/or consumers and facilitates equitable use ofadvertising space.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary block diagram of a system that distributespoints to provide an incentive for customers and advertisers to use thesearch engine.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a system coupled to the Internetthat facilitates market segmentation among search engines.

FIG. 5 illustrates exemplary intelligent search routing options that canbe implemented into a web browser and/or operating system.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary flow chart of procedures for pricing adspace based upon an advertiser ranking.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary flow chart of procedures forfacilitating the distribution of incentive points.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary flow chart of procedures for employingpurchase history and behavioral targeting.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary system for the verification of atransaction.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary system with a points account for theverification of a transaction.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of a system that employs points tofacilitate transactions between a customer and a merchant.

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a system that accuratelyestimates the performance of an ad publisher and/or mitigates clickfraud.

FIG. 13 illustrates a block diagram of a computer operable to executethe disclosed architecture.

FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an exemplary computingenvironment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to thedrawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to likeelements throughout. In the following description, for purposes ofexplanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. It may beevident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order tofacilitate describing the claimed subject matter.

As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable,a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a server and the server canbe a component. One or more components may reside within a processand/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers.

As used herein, the terms to “infer” or “inference” refer generally tothe process of reasoning about or inferring states of the system,environment, and/or user from a set of observations as captured viaevents and/or data. Inference can be employed to identify a specificcontext or action, or can generate a probability distribution overstates, for example. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, thecomputation of a probability distribution over states of interest basedon a consideration of data and events. Inference can also refer totechniques employed for composing higher-level events from a set ofevents and/or data. Such inference results in the construction of newevents or actions from a set of observed events and/or stored eventdata, whether or not the events are correlated in close temporalproximity, and whether the events and data come from one or severalevent and data sources.

As used herein, the terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web” can besubstantially interchangeably and can be used to refer to a network ofcomputer networks which operates world-wide using a common set ofcommunications protocols, electronically linking a substantial portionof the uniform resource locators stored by InterNIC. As used herein, theterm “website” can be described as follows. The entire collection of webpages, documents and/or other information (e.g., images, sound, andvideo files, . . . ) that are made available through the Internet andgenerally appear to be a single web destination. As used herein, theterm “search engine” can be used to refer to a component of the Internetemployed to help users find websites based upon key words. Searchengines can maintain data stores of websites and/or use softwareprograms such as “spiders”, “robots” and/or “crawlers” to collectinformation for the data stores, which is then indexed. A search enginecan be used synonymously with Internet “directories”, but can also bedistinguished by the ordering/indexing of the websites. It is to beappreciated that search engines can be comprised of both hardware andsoftware.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a computer implemented system 100 thatranks advertisers and/or consumers and that facilitates equitable use ofadvertising space is depicted. Generally, the system 100 can include anInternet search engine website (SEW) 102 that can be hosted and/ormaintained by a search engine provider (SEP) 104. Thus, the advertisercan pay a fee to place an ad on the SEW 102 in exchange for the exposureto the user base of the SEW 102. The SEW 102 can be accessed by way ofthe Internet 106 and/or the World Wide Web. Like conventional searchengines, the SEW 102 can provide an indexed data store of a subset ofall the websites world-wide accessible by way of the Internet 106, aswell as advertising space to an advertiser (not shown). It is to beappreciated that although the inventions discussed herein are primarilydescribed within the context of advertising on search results pages, theinventions can likewise be applied to content pages of primary (e.g.,platform provider) as well as third parties (e.g., agents, merchants,consumers). Moreover, aspects of the inventions can be used not only inthe online ad setting but also, e.g., for job searchers, head hunters,and employers as the customer, agent and merchant.

Conventional search engines providers usually sell the ad space to thehighest bidder based upon a pay-per-click (PPC) scheme and/or set thefee for the ad space according to a click-through-rate (CTR). However,these schemes have proven to be counterproductive for both consumers andadvertisers, and ultimately inefficient to the search engine industry aswell. These schemes or business models are anti-competitive as evidencedby the extremely high profit margins of the top two search engineproviders. However, the market share for these search engine providerscontinues to increase, establishing an “information monopoly.” Moreover,these models do not account for the true value of the ad to consumers orcompensate for click fraud, wherein a user clicks on an ad, perhapsnumerous times, for the incentives provided rather than due to aninterest in the advertiser

In contrast to conventional ad pricing models, the price charged to anadvertiser to host an ad on the SEW 102 can vary according to anadvertiser ranking as well as a subset or combination of theconventional pricing models and/or other factors that are describedinfra. The advertising ranking can be computed and/or derived by the SEP104 based upon a rating provided by the consumer who clicks on an addisplayed on the SEW 102 and, subsequently completes a purchase for aproduct or service from the advertiser. By employing rankings (e.g.,advertiser ranking, customer ranking), SEP 104 can demonstrate toadvertisers the value of advertising on the SEW 102.

For example, the SEP 104 can provide to the advertiser real economicincentives; exposure to current and/or future goodwill; mitigation ofclick fraud; and exposure to high quality buyers that produce morepurchase per click-through than other models. As a result, the SEP 102can attract advertising business away from the market share leaders evenin an environment in which advertisers have historically been forced tofollow market share despite the increasing costs. Ultimately, marketshare leaders may be forced to start competing on value rather than onmarket share, which is better for everyone. Consumers can gain exposureto more diverse markets and advertisers can gain an effective pricingmechanism to advertise.

It is to be appreciated that the website hosting the ad need not be aSEW 104, but can be other websites such as content websites with adspace. As well, the model described herein can be employed in connectionwith a newspaper, magazines, radio television, etc. For example, a“pay-per-call” scheme can be employed that is analogous to the PPCdescribed supra. Moreover voice-over IP (VOIP) e.g., utilizing Internettelephony could be employed to popularize a pay-per-call model.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a computer implemented system 200 that ranksadvertisers and/or consumers and facilitates equitable use ofadvertising space is shown. Generally, the system 200 can include a SEW202 coupled to the Internet 106 that can host an ad 204 for anadvertiser 206 at a price that varies according to an advertiser ranking208. Also depicted is the SEP 104 that hosts and/or maintains the SEW202 and that can compute the advertiser ranking 208 based at least inpart upon a rating from a consumer 210 who clicked on the ad 204 andcompleted a purchase from the advertiser 206. It is to be appreciatedthat the SEW 202 is substantially similar to the SEW 102 and 104 (FIG.1), respectively, but provided here in more detail. Accordingly, aspectsdescribed in FIG. 2 can equally apply with respect to FIG. 1 and viceversa. It is also to be appreciated that components and/or elementslabeled 204-218, respectively, can exist in the plural, but are shownhere as single components and/or elements for the sake of brevity, butcan be referenced in the plural form and each can have individualcharacteristics that are distinguishing

As shown, the consumer 210 and a visitor 212 access the SEW 202 by wayof the Internet 106. It is to be understood that both the consumer 210and the visitor can access the SEW 202 by conventional means known inthe art such as by employing a web browser application that runs on acomputer and/or other device. The SEP 104 can provide a consumer ranking214 to the consumer 210 and/or the visitor 212, which can be employed todetermine the ad 204 to be displayed upon access to the SEW 202. Theconsumer ranking 214 can be based upon past purchases, past clicks onads 204, whether the consumer 210 is a new or frequent customer, thepercentage of clicks-throughs 218 that resulted in a purchase,demographics information, and the like. One distinction between theconsumer 210 and the visitor is that the consumer 210 is typicallyconsidered to have clicked on the ad 204 and redirected to theadvertiser website 216 by way of the click-through path 218 (shown withbroken lines with longer dashes) and subsequently completed a purchasefrom the advertiser 206. In contrast, the visitor 212 can have beenexposed to the ad 204, but has not clicked on the ad 204 (althoughvisitor 212 may do so at a later time or may have clicked on other ads204).

The SEP 104 can save data to a data store (not shown), includingadvertiser rankings 208 and consumer rankings 214, each advertiserranking 208 can be associated with a particular advertiser 206, and eachconsumer ranking 214 can be associated with either a consumer 210 or avisitor 212 as indicated by the broken lines with shorter dashes. TheSEP 104 can also store, track, modify, index, analyze, etc. other datajust as conventional search engine providers do, as well as data thatcan be particularly employed to compute the rankings 208, 214, e.g.,data that is not available to conventional search engines.

As will be described in more detail below, the claimed subject mattercan provide improvements over conventional search engine providerbusiness models. For example, both consumers 210 and advertisers 206 cannow prioritize how to assign value in the advertising space, opening upnew markets that are no longer one-sided, but range the spectrum ofquality versus economy. Additional value can be provided to theadvertisers 206 by enabling the advertisers 206 to participate in themarketing of search ads 204 to consumers 210. As a result, moreopportunities are provided to the search engine marketers (SEMs).

To the accomplishment of the foregoing the rankings 208, 214 play arole, and can rely upon data that historically has not or could not becollected by conventional systems. In particular, much of the dataemployed to determine the rankings 208, 214 can be post-transactionaldata, e.g., data that is collected after a consumer 210 has made apurchase from an advertiser 206. Due to the inability of conventionalsystems to monitor transactions after an advertisement is clicked theextent of the data previously monitored was little more than that apotential buyer was redirected resulting in a click-through fee.

However, according to one aspect of the claimed subject mattertransactions between the consumer 210 and the advertiser 206 can berecorded even without traditional means of monitoring the transaction.For example, an advertising ranking 208 can be scored based uponfeedback from the consumer 210. Hence, feedback from the consumer 214and/or the advertiser 206 can provide a basis for establishing that apurchase/transaction occurred. Transactions that occur withoutsubsequent feedback from the consumer 210 can be considered by defaultto be positive, but this need not be the case. Alternatively, in somecases no feedback report can incur a slight negative adjustment to theadvertising ranking 208, thereby encouraging the advertiser 206 toprovide the consumer 210 with an incentive to provide some feedback.Moreover, the consumer ranking 214 can be adjusted positively forconsumers 210 who provide feedback as another incentive. However, in thelast situation, it should be appreciated that the consumer ranking 214adjustments for consumers 210 that provide negative feedback may not beas great as for consumers 210 that provide positive feedback because inthe case of negative feedback the consumer 210 already has an incentiveto report on the purchase and the resulting dissatisfaction.

As a result, the rankings 208, 214 can have an impact on the behavior ofboth the consumers 210 and the advertisers 214. For example, in additionto being a multiplier for conventional rankings (e.g., auction-style bidfor ad space and/or CTR), the advertiser ranking 208 can be used to set“cut-off” levels. Thus, if it is determined (e.g., due to consumer 210feedback) that an advertiser 206 satisfies less than, e.g., 80% ofconsumers 210, then the SEP 104 can choose to forbid the advertiser 206from placing an ad 204 on the SEW 202, irrespective of how much theadvertiser 206 is willing to pay for the ad space. It is to beappreciated that cut-off levels other than 80% are contemplated to bewithin the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter as well asmultiple different cut-off levels. For instance, the cut-off level couldbe determined based upon the industry of the advertiser 206 (e.g., thetypes of goods and/or services sold, the volume of transactions, . . .), empirical data gathered by the SEP 104, Gaussian curves normalizedthe block the bottom segment of advertisers 206, and even input and/orselected preferences of the consumers 210 and advertisers 206.

In addition, the cut-off level can be determined and/or inferred by theintelligence component 220. The intelligence component 220 can examinethe entirety or a subset of the data stored by the SEP 104 and canprovide for reasoning about or infer states of the system, environment,and/or user from a set of observations as captured via events and/ordata. Inference can be employed to identify a specific context oraction, or can generate a probability distribution over states, forexample. The inference can be probabilistic—that is, the computation ofa probability distribution over states of interest based on aconsideration of data and events. Inference can also refer to techniquesemployed for composing higher-level events from a set of events and/ordata.

Such inference results in the construction of new events or actions froma set of observed events and/or stored event data, whether or not theevents are correlated in close temporal proximity, and whether theevents and data come from one or several event and data sources. Variousclassification (explicitly and/or implicitly trained) schemes and/orsystems (e.g., support vector machines, neural networks, expert systems,Bayesian belief networks, fuzzy logic, data fusion engines . . . ) canbe employed in connection with performing automatic and/or inferredaction in connection with the claimed subject matter.

A classifier is a function that maps an input attribute vector, x=(x1,x2, x3, x4, xn), to a confidence that the input belongs to a class, thatis, f(x)=confidence(class). Such classification can employ aprobabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis (e.g., factoring intothe analysis utilities and costs) to prognose or infer an action that auser desires to be automatically performed. A support vector machine(SVM) is an example of a classifier that can be employed. The SVMoperates by finding a hypersurface in the space of possible inputs,where the hypersurface attempts to split the triggering criteria fromthe non-triggering events. Intuitively, this makes the classificationcorrect for testing data that is near, but not identical to trainingdata. Other directed and undirected model classification approachesinclude, e.g., naïve Bayes, Bayesian networks, decision trees, neuralnetworks, fuzzy logic models, and probabilistic classification modelsproviding different patterns of independence can be employed.Classification as used herein also is inclusive of statisticalregression that is utilized to develop models of priority.

Still referring to FIG. 2 and some of the advantages provided by therankings 208, 214, it should be appreciated that consumers 210 can havemore influence in the search engine ad space market. For instance, aconsumer 210 directed to the advertiser website 216 from the SEW 202 byway of the click-through 218 can be afforded the assurance that anunsatisfactory purchase from the advertiser 206 can be more easilyresolved. Because advertisers 206 suffer from negative feedback, the SEP104 and advertiser rankings 208 implicitly act as a policing mechanism.In essence, the SEP 104 can be biased towards high quality merchants(e.g., advertisers 206), which benefits all parties involved, and canultimately attract more consumers 210, which can, in turn, increase themarket share of the SEP 104 in a natural, self-reinforcing marketdynamic. Additionally, to further reinforce these advantages, the SEP104 can choose to offer ad space to high quality advertisers 206 (e.g.,those with superior advertising rankings 208) at a discount.

In general, the average quality of advertisers 206 with ads 204 on theSEW 202 can steadily improve over time. Moreover, consumers 210confidence and/or trust in the SEP 104 can steadily increase as well,similar to what has been witnessed in fields other than the searchengine ad space where transactions can be monitored from end-to-end,such as auction websites. Further, this confidence in the SEP 104 canestablish goodwill with both consumers 210 and advertisers 208, bybuilding value into the brand name. In turn, these advantages canimprove the overall market share for purchasing over search engineproviders (e.g., the SEP 104) both through more efficiently unitingbuyers and sellers as well as attracting business that has historicallybeen conducted in other venues such as internet auction venues.

However, some difficulties do exist. For example, as described, sinceadvertising rankings 208 are based to a degree on feedback from theconsumer 210, additional incentives should be provided to ensure thatthis feedback occurs. These additional incentives as well as otheraspects of the claimed invention can be described with reference to FIG.3.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a system 300 that distributes points to providean incentive for customers and advertisers. The system in general caninclude the SEP 104, the advertiser(s) 206, the consumer(s) 210, and anintelligence component 220 as described supra. In addition, the SEP 104can issue perishable points 302 to the advertiser 206 as an initial wayto produce the aforementioned additional incentives. The perishablepoints 302 can be conveyed to the advertiser 206 in exchange for moneyor another resource as well as a form of rebate on an amount theadvertiser 206 spends on the marketing platform of the SEP 104 (e.g.,the amount paid to place an ad 204 on the SEW 102 from FIG. 2). Theamount of the rebate distributed in perishable points 302 can be, e.g.,a straight 20% (or some other value) of the amount the advertiser 206pays to the SEP 104 for ad space, or an amount that is determined by avariety of factors, including but not limited to the advertiser ranking208 (FIG. 2), the product or service being offered (e.g., more points302 for markets in which the SEP 104 wants to gain in market share), thevalue of the ad space (e.g., fewer points 302 when directed to visitors212 with high consumer rankings 214 (FIG. 2)), other empirical datacollected by the SEP 104, etc. Additionally, the amount of perishablepoints 302 issued can be derived by the intelligence component 220 in amanner similar to what was described above.

The perishable points 302 can then be distributed to consumers 210 inthe form of redeemable points 304, which can be redeemed for goodsand/or services (e.g., software, memberships to pay sites, . . . )offered by the SEP 104 on the provider website 306. According to oneaspect of the claimed subject matter, the perishable points 302 cannotbe redeemed and therefore typically only acquire redemption value oncethey have been distributed to the consumer 210. As well, in order toprevent abuse or fraud, the perishable points 302 can have a relativelyshort lifespan, expiring after, e.g., a month, six months, etc. However,once the perishable points 302 are transferred to consumers 210 asredeemable points 304, this expiration period can be removed orextended. It is to be appreciated that the intelligence component 220can be employed to determine an optimal expiration period (if any) forthe points 302, 304.

Redeemable points 304 can also be conveyed to consumers 210 directlyfrom the SEP 104, e.g., when the consumer 210 buys directly from theprovider website 306. As can be seen, the introduction of points 302,304 can provide additional incentives for consumers 210 to buy fromadvertisers 206, increasing the appeal of the SEP 104 for both.Moreover, advertisers 206 have the ability to market the points in aflexible way that suits various marketing strategies, and becausepurchases can be verified, click-fraud is mitigated and/or eliminated.Another advantage is that the SEP 104 can track what consumers 210 tendto purchase with the points 304, providing a rich source of information.

Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that the cost of one redeemablepoint 304 to the SEP 104 may be, e.g., one cent, but since the points304 are redeemed for the products of the SEP 104, it could be valued at,e.g., 2.5 cents to the consumer 210. In that case, such an exchangewould be tantamount to the consumers 210 seeing an economic benefitequal to half of the advertisers 206 market budget. As will be detailedinfra, the redeemable points 304 can be exchanged for non-transferablesoftware, which can increase the value multiplier seen by the consumer210 from, e.g., 2.5 to 5 or more. This is similar to the effect of theconsumers 210 receiving the entire amount (or more) of the advertiser206 budget. In essence, the advertiser 206 can allocate portions of themarketing budget to improve consumer 210 satisfaction.

An additional advantage is that the redeemable points 304 can beemployed as an incentive for consumers 210 to provide feedback. Forexample, the consumer 210 earns redeemable points 304 by completing atransaction with an advertiser 206. According to one aspect of theclaimed subject matter, the SEP 104 can optionally require that aconsumer 210 provide feedback about that transaction (thereby addingvalue to the advertising ranking 208 (FIG. 2)) prior to redeeming thepoints 304.

Non-Transferable Software

As described supra, redeemable points 304 can be used to purchasenon-transferable software from the provider website 306. Industries thathave historically had the ability to monitor transaction have used asimilar concept. Hence, while a novel concept to the search enginespace, the travel industry for example, has been employing a system offrequent flyer points for some time. However, in order to mitigate abuseand/or to prevent cannibalizing their own ticket business, often ticketsare transferable only to friends or family, but not to strangers.Airlines often mitigate this problem by requiring ID's at the gateand/or monitoring classified ads and Internet auction sites.Non-transferable software can be provided to consumers 210 by the SEP104 at a very low cost based upon a similar scheme. For example,software purchased with redeemable points 304 can be associated alicensing key with private information about the consumer (e.g.,address, date of birth, . . . ), which a consumer 210 might be willingto share with family and friends, but not with strangers and or in otherways such as based upon an IP address, machine ID, a telephone numberand the like.

For example, the activation of the non-transferable software (and/orother products and services) can embed the private information of theconsumer, which the consumer does not mind sharing with friends andfamily, but generally would not want strangers to know. As well, theactivation can require the presence of a personal asset of the consumersuch as an IP address or a cellular phone connection that may be thephone number associated with the consumer whose point account balance isused to purchase the software. Hence, the use of the telephoneconnection of a particular person can be required, e.g., the computermakes a call from a particular telephone connection to a 1-800 number.The recipient can employ caller-ID such that if the caller-IDinformation matches with the information on file associated with thatsoftware, then the software is unlocked. Additionally or alternatively,a blue-tooth enabled cell phone or a SMS/text messaging capable cellphone could be employed, as well as an internet connection with, e.g.,static IP address.

Mechanism for Behavior Targeting of Ad Allocation and Pricing Based onTransaction History

Traditionally, ad targeting aims to reach specific audiences have beenbased on gender, age, geographic location, etc. In ad allocation andpricing, as proposed supra can use transaction history—a form ofbehavioral targeting. In particular, a mechanism can be employed tobring together merchants and consumers who are more likely to enter intotransactions with each other. This can be accomplished by allocatingadvertising to those merchants with whom the consumer is most likely tohave a transaction, as measured by the frequency or value of previoustransactions of that consumer with that particular merchant or withmerchants in the same market segment. For these purposes, marketsegments may be defined widely or narrowly. For example, alcohol or wineor French wine or Bordeaux could be considered a market segment. Othermarket segments could be, e.g., women's apparel, Xbox-brand games,jewelry, books, electronics, lawyers, etc.

In online auctions for advertisements (e.g., for ads on search resultpages or on content websites), a function or algorithm can determineranking of bids (e.g., allocation) and pricing. Some search engineproviders currently employ an algorithm which takes demographicinformation into account. However, the algorithm can also rely upon orinclude a measure of the transaction history of the consumer, such aspoints accumulated (e.g., redeemable points 304) from a specificmerchant (e.g., advertiser 206) and/or a specific market segment and/oroverall number of points. As described, these points can be stored in a“points account” associated with the consumer as well as reflect uponthe consumer ranking 214.

Accordingly, behavioral targeting can provide a better quality of adsbased on personal history in the world of advertisement that goes beyondmerely determining that many consumers who purchased one product alsopurchased a second product. Behavior targeting can be employed to targeta consumer based upon a likely interest, based upon, e.g., a pasttransaction, clicking on a link, providing specific search terms, etc.For example, if it is determined that a consumer is interested incameras, the consumer can be delivered ads that relate to cameras and/orcamera accessories. Search ads of this type can be particularlyeffective when the information is determined from a current keyword. Foran example a person who is interested in photography may search for“camera”. Similarly contextual ads are based on an inference that aperson reading an article about photography might be interested in“camera” too.

Additionally, demographic information can be employed to target ads. Forexample, male will likely be interested in a different kind of shaverthan a female. Hence, behavioral targeting can be very useful inincreasing the effectiveness of advertisements. An object can be todiscover or infer what the consumer is likely to be interested in andthen select the ads of a related species. For example, if a consumer'stransactional history reveals the purchase of a high megapixel camera,that consumer may be interested in the high capacity memory card andsuch ads can be selected for display. However, it can also be an objectto mitigate privacy concerns. In accordance therewith, any of the datacollected about a particular consumer and/or an inference drawn as tothat consumer's “behavior” can be performed exclusively by machinesand/or computers without human involvement. Moreover, an option can beprovided to the consumer that allows the consumer to modify and/or purgethis information, either partially or entirely.

Mechanism for Ad Allocation and Pricing as a Function of Merchant Rating

The current ad allocation and pricing mechanisms use a function of thebid, the CTR, and certain demographic information. However a searchengine provider (e.g., SEP 104) can employ a function which also takesinto account the merchant rating provided by customers. Such a ratingcan be obtained e.g., by market research, or by way of current onlinereputation systems such as Bizrate, Epinions, Ebay, etc., or by way ofthe point rating mechanism described above. One implementation is to usethe function is illustrated below.Bid/click×CTR×Merchant rating

Where merchant rating is a number based on customer feedback asdiscussed above (e.g., the advertiser ranking 208 from FIG. 2).

Frequent Buyer Program

Drawing again from the example of airline travel concepts, the SEP 104can also employ the notion of a frequent buyer program. Similar toairlines offering frequent flyer points and rating travelers along atiered scale, the SEP 104 can also employ this concept, even though theSEP 104 does not typically exercise the same monitoring mechanismsand/or controls that the airline industry can. For example, a consumer210 that accumulates, e.g., 5,000 redeemable points 304 becomes a“Silver Elite” member, 10,000 points 304 to become a “Gold Elite”member; and 15,000 points 304 to become a “Platinum Elite” member. Thenaming convention can, of course vary based upon, e.g., branding.

Historically, shipping charges are one of the main obstacles to Internetpurchases. Thus, the claimed subject matter can mitigate this obstacleby subsidizing, either entirely or in part, the costs associated withshipping. To continue the previous example, consumers can be rewardedfor achieving increasingly higher levels of status, e.g., free groundshipping for “Silver Elite” members, free second day shipping for “GoldElite” members and free overnight shipping for “Platinum Elite” members.

The consumers are directly benefited not only in the traditionaleconomic sense of no- or low-cost shipping, but also in that thefrequent buyer status can be applied across the board to alladvertisers, not merely associated with a single advertiser as is thecase with traditional frequent rewards programs (e.g., frequent flyermiles from one airline typically cannot be redeemed on a differentairline let alone for rewards in an entirely different industry, such asa free subscription, a free book or free shipping on the book).Advertisers have an incentive to participate by honoring the frequentbuyer status of consumers because free shipping can increase saleswithout the expense because the shipping is subsidized by the SEP 104rather than the advertiser. Benefits other than or in addition to freeshipping are also contemplated, such as free products and services,promotional gifts, etc. Moreover, status ranks and incentives need notbe limited only to consumers. For instance, similar concepts and/orincentives can apply to advertisers, e.g., for advertisers that hand outa high number of points to their customers may also receive rewards.

Frequent buyer programs can also attract compulsive shoppers (e.g.,consumers 210), increasing market share. In addition, this provides theSEP 104 with an additional form of leverage. For example, since frequentbuyer status can be built into the consumer ranking 214 (FIG. 2), theseconsumers 210 can be effectively routed toward advertising spacepurchased by highly ranked advertisers. In accordance with theforegoing, many of the concepts described herein can provide to the SEP104 bragging rights and/or branding as a better consumer-friendly searchengine. However, a difficulty still exists in segmenting the Internet adsearch space to fragment the current monopoly in the search enginespace.

Market/Product Segmentation

With reference to FIG. 4, a computer-implemented system 400 thatfacilitates market segmentation among search engines is depicted.Generally, the system 400 can include a segmentation component 401 witha configuration component 402 that can provide intelligent searchrouting options 404 and a routing component 406 that can route a searchquery 410 (e.g., an Internet search query) based upon the routingoptions 404 selected (e.g., by a user). For example, the routingcomponent 406 can route a query 410 by way of the Internet 106 and route412 to the appropriate SEW 408. Referring briefly to FIG. 5, exemplaryintelligent search routing options 404 are illustrated in more detail.For example, categories 502 (e.g., search types 502) can be providedthat distinguish different types of Internet searches 502, e.g., as aconsumer search, an image search, an entertainment search, a newssearch, a default search, a local default search, and the like. Undereach category 502, a selected 506 search engine 504 will be employed forsearches of that type 502. It is to be appreciated that other categories502 and other search engines 504 can be employed, and those displayed inFIG. 5 are provided merely for the sake of illustration and notlimitation

Referring back to FIG. 4, the configuration component 402 can display aplurality of search engine descriptors 504, each of which can beassociated with an existing SEW (e.g., SEW 408 ₁-408 _(N), referred tocollectively or individually as SEW 408). It is to be appreciated thatalthough the SEWs 408 can be referred to collectively, hereafter eachrespective SEW 408 can have unique properties that distinguish each ofSEWs 408. The configuration component 402 can also provide a pluralityof search types and/or search categories 502 and for the selection 506of the plurality of search engine descriptors 504 for each of theplurality of search types and/or categories 502 (e.g., as depicted bythe search options 404). Since each of the plurality of search enginedescriptors 504 can be associated with an existing SEW 408, the routingcomponent 406 can route an Internet search query 410 through theInternet 106 along the route 412 to the SEW 408 that is associated withthe search engine descriptor 504 selected 506 for the particular type ofsearch 502.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing, the routing component 406 cancompare the Internet search query 410 to a list of search terms and/orkeywords in order to determine which category and/or search type 502should be employed for the Internet search query 410. Based upon thisdetermination, the Internet search query 410 is routed to the SEW 408associated with the selection 506 for that particular search type 502.The list can be indexed based on, e.g., consumer searches with key wordsfor which advertisers have bid or those key words that yield a higherprobability that a consumer will click on an ad. Hence, an index ofcommon consumer key words can be provided to the client machine (e.g.,provided to at least one of components 400-406). It is to be appreciatedthat the delta or change to this index will likely be negligible, butthe index can be updated periodically as well. Moreover, in the casewhere certain key words can implicate more than one category (e.g., thekey word “cars” could be intended to be a consumer search forautomobiles or an entertainment search for a popular musical band), adetermination of the category 502 can be made base on, for example, adefault priority, a pre-set selection, consumer search and/ortransaction history, and the like.

Additionally, the features provided by the configuration routing options404 and can be implemented into, e.g., a web browser or an operatingsystem and accessed and/or selected 506 by a user by way of theconfiguration component 402. Therefore, the segmentation component 401can exist as part of an operating system, a web browser, or anotherappropriate mechanism. As such the routing options 404 and/orconfiguration component 402 can provide a platform to help segment thesearch ad space, as well as benefiting consumers, since there is aperformance disparity between many conventional SEWs 408 (e.g., one SEW408 may be highly regarded by academics and/or highly technical users,while other SEWs 408 might be better for consumers).

As such, it is to be appreciated that the configuration component 402and/or the routing options 404 can provide a means by which users canselect 506 a default SEW 408 depending on the type of search 502intended to be performed. According to another example, searches couldbe different depending upon whether the search is a pay service (e.g.,sub-segmented into travel, services, merchandise, . . . ) or a freesearch. Without the advantages supplied by the claimed subject matter,there is an implicit assumption that “one-size-fits-all” with regard toad space searches, which is not the case. For example, whileconventional SEWs 408 favored by academics and/or highly technicalpeople may currently have the highest market share, those SEWs 408 donot necessarily provide the best service, especially for other types ofusers such as the average consumer. Moreover, attempting to segment themarkets to cater to consumers can be beneficial because consumersearches are, on average, more lucrative.

FIG. 6 illustrates a process flow diagram of a computer implementedmethod 600 for facilitating advertiser rankings and equitable use of adspace. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the one or moremethods shown herein, e.g., in the form of a flow chart, are shown anddescribed as a series of acts, it is to be understood and appreciatedthat the subject invention is not limited by the order of acts, as someacts may, in accordance with the invention, occur in a different orderand/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and describedherein. For example, those skilled in the art will understand andappreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented as aseries of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram.Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement amethodology in accordance with the invention.

At 602, an ad for an advertiser's products and/or services can bedisplayed on a SEW. The ad can, for example, provide a link to anadvertiser website, and the SEP can collect data regarding the ad, theadvertiser, the clicks on the ad, the customer and so on. The ad cancontain an embedded hyperlink such that when the ad is clicked, a SEWvisitor can be linked to the advertiser website, and potentially becomea customer/consumer of the advertiser by making a purchase from theadvertiser. Although conventional SEPs cannot monitor transactionsbetween a consumer and an advertiser, the claimed subject matterprovides a number of mechanisms to verify that a transaction hasoccurred.

At 604, feedback can be received from a consumer who clicked on the adand completed a purchase from the advertiser. The feedback can, forexample, verify that a transaction occurred as well as provide otherinformation, such as the size and type of transaction, the consumer'slevel of satisfaction, etc. At 606, an advertiser ranking can becomputed and/or updated based, e.g., upon the feedback received at 604.At 608, ad space for the ad displayed at 602 can be priced based uponthe advertiser ranking as well as other factors. The pricing mechanismfor the ad can thus be maximized according to consumer satisfaction andthe quality of the ad from the consumer's perspective rather than thecurrent schemes that take a shortsighted view of maximizing short-termprofits to the SEP.

For instance, one known pricing mechanism is to allow advertisers to bidon ad space, resulting in a display of ads from advertisers who paid themost, irrespective of the value to the consumer. Another mechanismemployed is a function of the bid multiplied by a CTR, yet this functiondoes not accurately depict how a consumer truly values an ad becausethere is a strong incentive to commit click-fraud and very little in theway of prevention or effective detection. For example, click-throughschemes commonly employ revenue splitting with the user who clicks on anad or a third party publisher, which provides a monetary incentive toget as many clicks-through as possible without an incentive for thoseclick-throughs to be germane. Moreover, even when the click-throughrevenue is allocated entirely to the underlying SEP, a competitor of theadvertiser can be benefited by click-fraud by when the advertiser isforced to pay large marketing sums due to the click-throughs.

Accordingly, the pricing mechanism employed can mitigate click-fraud aswell as account for real value to consumers by utilizing a variety offunction based not only upon the bid and/or the CTR, but based also uponthe advertiser ranking (which is itself a function of consumersatisfaction computed on the basis feedback provided by consumers howhave verifiably made purchases from the advertiser). For example,advertisers can be ordered based upon the following function:Advertiser Order=Ax×By×Cz

Wherein A is the Advertiser ranking, B is the bid, C is the CTR and x,y, and z are coefficients employed to weight each of the variablesaccording what is desired. For example, the SEP may want the Advertiserranking to be heavily weight (e.g., x=2, 3.5, . . . ), while keeping thebid at the stated value (e.g., y=1), and giving the CTR very littleweight (e.g., z=0.5, . . . ). It is to be appreciated that the valuesgiven are exemplary, and any other values could be chosen (e.g.,depending on the aims of the SEP) without departing from the spirit andscope of the claimed subject matter. After the ordering is established,the actual price for the ad space can be determined based uponwell-known auction methods, such as the “first-price” auction, or“sealed bid” auction, the “second-price” auction, and/or the “Vickrey”auction, etc.

As can be seen, click-fraud can be reduced and the interests of bothconsumers and advertisers can be aligned with the interests of the SEP.For example, advertisers now have an incentive to satisfy consumersbecause doing so can yield a higher advertiser ranking which canultimately reduce their advertising budget. Moreover, advertisers withhigh consumer satisfaction (and therefore, high advertiser rankings)will be more likely to advertise with the SEP, thus, the quality ofadvertisers on the SEW will increase over time. In addition, theadvertiser rankings can be bolster and/or improve a merchants brand namewithout incurring expensive advertising programs to consumers.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a computer-implemented method 700 forfacilitating the distribution of incentive points is illustrated. At702, non-redeemable points can be distributed to an advertiser. Thenon-redeemable points can be perishable to prevent abuse and to providean incentive for the advertiser to distribute the points in a timelyfashion. As well, the non-redeemable points can be distributed to theadvertiser based upon the total amount of the marketing budget theadvertiser allocates to the SEP (e.g., 20%, or some other proportion ofthe budget the advertiser spends with the SEP can be refunded to theadvertiser in the form of non-redeemable points). In addition, thenon-redeemable points can be purchased directly from the SEP, e.g., at adiscount to the face value and/or provided as part of a promotion.

It is to be appreciated that the non-redeemable points may not havedirect economic value to the advertiser since they typically cannot beredeemed. However, at 704, the non-redeemable points can be convertedinto redeemable points as they are transferred to consumers, e.g.,consumers who were linked to the advertiser website by way of the SEW,and completed a transaction from the advertiser. At 706, products and/orservices can be offered in exchange for the redeemable points. Thenumber of points required for the product and/or service can bedetermined based upon an economic value of the product and/or service aswell as in connection with other incentives. The number of pointsrequired can then be deducted from the consumer's points account. Inthis manner, an advertiser can effectively allocate a significantportion of the advertising budget directly to its customers bydistributing to them the points that were received for advertising onthe SEW and/or agent website.

For example, at 704 the non-redeemable points can be transferred to apoints account associated with the consumer who completed thetransaction with the advertiser. Normally, the number of non-redeemablepoints conveyed to the consumer as redeemable points will vary with thesize of the transaction (e.g., the advertiser is likely to award theconsumer with more points for larger transactions), and this data can beuseful in a variety of ways. First, in addition to consumer and/oradvertiser feedback detailed above, the transfer of points can be anadditional mechanism to verify that a transaction occurred between aconsumer and an advertiser. Accordingly, the transfer of points can beuseful to verify that the consumer is entitled to provide feedback aboutthat advertiser and vice versa, and, in addition, the SEP can optionallyrequire the consumer to provide feedback prior to redeeming the pointsor award additional points as a way of increasing the likelihood thatfeedback will be provided, thereby enhancing the significance of theadvertiser ranking.

Secondly, the aforementioned data relating to the type and/or size ofthe transaction that occurred can provide valuable information aboutboth the consumer and the advertiser (e.g., purchase and/or saleshistories). Additionally, the number of points issued to the consumercan be employed to weight the consumer feedback. For example, feedbackregarding a very large purchase can affect the advertiser ranking moresignificantly than feedback from one or many small purchases. In thisway, advertisers cannot artificially inflate the advertiser ranking byconducting a large number of small dollar value transactions wherein itis very inexpensive to replace the good or service (and thereforesatisfy the customer), but disregard consumer satisfaction when veryexpensive items are purchased that are extremely costly to replace whena customer is dissatisfied. Additionally or alternatively to weightingfeedback based upon the size of the transaction, separate advertisingrankings can be applied to each advertiser based upon customersatisfaction categorized, e.g., by the price range of the product orservice.

It is also to be appreciated that the products or services offered at706 can be purchased directly by the consumer rather than merelyexchanged for redeemable points. It such a case, the consumer can beawarded redeemable points directly from the SEP, which can also beredeemed by the consumer for the products or services offered at 706.Moreover, the use of points can reduce click-fraud in other ways notalready described. For instance, a third party publisher may host adsfor the advertiser and, as such, require fee splitting, which hasconventionally been based upon only the CTR and/or the bid. However,since the points will typically only be awarded after a bona fidetransaction, the value of advertising on the website of the third partypublisher can be more accurately determined. For example, one websitemay generate a large number of click-throughs, but relatively fewpurchases. In that case, the advertiser who is likely paying for eachclick-through evaluate the real value of the advertisement and/ordiscover potential click-fraud.

In addition to conventional products and services, the products orservices offered at 706 can also include non-transferable software or“micro-subscriptions”. Micro-subscriptions can denote, e.g., a right toview a single document and/or article (or a small number of documents,but typically less than a full-fledged subscription) from a publisherthat provides premium content. A consumer may be interested in anoccasional document from a publisher, but not want to pay for continualaccess to the premium content. Thus, micro-subscriptions can enable theconsumer to view only the documents of interest for a small number ofredeemable points. The publishers that participate inmicro-subscriptions can be benefited both economically and in terms ofmarketing, and the SEP can be benefited by gaining access to being ableto index premium content that traditional SEW's do not provide to usersentering a search query. The non-transferable software can contain alicensing key embedded with personal information about the consumer toprevent subsequent sales that might otherwise cannibalize the softwareprovider's business, but would not interfere with transfers and/or giftsto friends and family.

Referencing FIG. 8, a computer-implemented method 800 for employingpurchase history and behavioral targeting is depicted. At 802, apurchase history for a consumer can be compiled. The purchase historycan be based upon purchases and/or transactions of the consumer that aresufficiently verified. For example, a transaction can be potentiallyverified when a consumer provides feedback relating to a transaction,when points are deposited into the consumer's points account, when theconsumer exchanges points for products or services offered by the SEP,and the like.

At 804, the purchase history can be employed to provide behavioraltargeting. For example, consumer information can be related to an IPaddress, a machine ID, stored in a cookie, or another means known in theart to identify the consumer to the SEW. As such, upon visiting the SEW,or as a result of a search query a determination can be made as to whatad or ads should be displayed, e.g., as a way of targeting appropriateads to the consumer based upon the consumers purchase history. As such,the value of advertisements can be increase, which, unlike more invasiveor annoying methods, is often welcomed by consumers if presentedproperly, as here. At 806 the price of the ad space for the ad displayedat 804 can vary. For example, since behavioral targeting can increasethe value of particular ads the SEP can select only those applicable adsfrom particular advertisers, such as advertisers with higher advertiserrankings and/or charge a premium for the ad space.

Mechanism to Confirm Transactions, Facilitate Ratings and/or DistributeFrequent-Customer Points

With reference now to FIG. 9, a search ad system 900 in accordance withone aspect of the claimed subject matter is depicted. The system 900 caninclude an agent 902 that refers 910 a customer 904 to a third party(e.g., a merchant 906). The agent 902 may desire to confirm that atransaction between the customer 904 and the merchant 906 has actuallytaken place without directly monitoring it. An example of an agent 902,a customer 904 and a merchant 906 can be the SEP 104, the consumer 210and the advertiser 206, respectively, from FIG. 2. After the agent 902refers 910 a customer 904 (e.g., by way of a paid search or a contentwebsite) to a merchant 906, a transaction 908 may occur. Here, atransaction 908 can be anything that provides utility to the merchant906, e.g., a purchase of a product and/or service, an acquisition fromthe merchant 906, or an appointment to view an item (e.g., a product orservice) for sale by the merchant 906, or a call to the merchant 906(e.g., a call to a lawyer or doctor, or other service provider), or evenjust a visit to a website.

The agent 902 typically does not own a bank, credit card agency or thelike, which would allow him to monitor financial transactions 908between customers 904 and merchants 906. Nevertheless, the agent 902 maydesire to: 1) know whether the transaction 908 has actually taken placewithout having to continually monitor the merchant 906; 2) establish afrequent-customer benefit system, without having to directly monitortransactions 908 between customers 904 and merchants 906; and 3)establish a rating system, which allows customers 904 to rate merchants906 with whom they actually had transactions 908, even though the agent902 has conventionally had no direct means to confirm a transaction 908.The referral 910 and the contact 910 can also represent an agenttransaction 910 in which a transaction with the agent 902 occurs. Forexample, the agent transaction 910 can be a purchase from an agent 910by a customer 904, a distribution of points to a merchant 906 inexchange for advertising dollars, or substantially anything thatprovides utility to the agent 902.

The Basic Mechanism

Referring now to FIG. 10, a search ad system 1000 in accordance with oneaspect of the claimed subject matter is depicted. In addition toreferring 910 the customer 904 to the merchant 906, the agent 902 candistribute points 1002 (e.g., points 302, 304 referenced in FIG. 3) tothe merchant 906, to be used in various ways. By way of illustration andnot limitation the following examples are provided: If the customer 904and the merchant 906 actually enter into a transaction 908, the merchant906 can convey some points 1002 to the customer 904, which the customer904 then deposits into a points account 1004 that is typically managedby the agent 902. All messages involving distribution of points 1002 maybe encrypted using private or public key cryptography to preventfraudulent point transactions. The points 1002 thus can provideconfirmation that a transaction 908 has occurred. The points 1002 canalso provide benefits to the customer 904, which makes it more likelythat customers 904 will demand that merchants 906 distribute points1002.

According to one aspect of the claimed subject matter, the number ofpoints 1002 awarded to the customer 904 may or may not be proportionalthe size of the transaction 908, e.g., the payment for an acquisition.In either case, the points 1002 can provide verification of atransaction 908, but in the former case, they additionally provide anindication of the size of the transaction 908.

Either the agent 902 or the merchant 906 may signal to the customer 904that points 1002 will be distributed if a transaction 908 occurs. Themerchant 906 may have a pre-announced policy of distributing points1002, or may indicate directly how many points 1002 will be awarded foreach transaction 908. The agent 902 may also signal to the customer 904that points 1002 will be awarded for transactions 908, e.g., in the caseof online advertising, by way of an automated email, a special color ora special symbol or a pop-up or preview navigation pane attached to anad.

As described, the points 1002 given to the merchant 906 may beperishable within a certain time period (e.g., perishable points 302),and be useful only to the customers 904 of the merchant 906 referred 910by the agent 902, but not to the merchant 906 itself or to customers 904who made purchases that were not by way of being redirected from thefrom the agent 902 (e.g., not by way of click-through 218 from FIG. 2).Merchants 906 may also be allowed to buy additional points 1002 directlyfrom the agent 902 to have more points 1002 to distribute to customers904. Again, these points 1002 may be perishable if they are notdistributed to the customers 904 within a certain time period.

Once the points 1002 are deposited in the points account 1004 associatedwith the purchasing customer 904, they can then be accepted asredeemable (e.g., perishable points 302 become redeemable points 304upon transfer). As such, another expiration time period (or periods)during which the points 1002 must be redeemed can be utilized. Inaddition, the customer 904 could reach special status, e.g., goldstatus, platinum status, etc. Customers 904 who reach a higher statusmay have a longer period in which to redeem their points 1002, and mayderive many other possible benefits—both from the agent 902 and from themerchant 906.

A Rating System Supported by the Basic Mechanism

According to yet another aspect of the claimed subject matter, a timestamp, a confirmation of a transaction 908, and/or other information canbe embedded in the data used to transmit the points 1002 into the pointsaccount 1004. A customer 904 depositing points 1002 thus has a proof ofthe transaction 908, as well as in some cases proof of how much waspaid). Base on this evidence, the agent 902 can allow the customer 904to rate the merchant 906. The cumulative rank (e.g., advertising ranking208) of the merchant 906 may be calculated by simply aggregating theratings of different customers 904, or it may take into account thesizes of the different transactions 908 (as indicated by the number ofallocated points 1002 or another manner), the status of the customer 904(as indicated by the total number of points 1002 accrued in, e.g., thepoints account 104), or the average rating the customer 904 has given inthe past (either overall, or in a given market segment, price category,etc), providing the option of a weighted average rating, rather thanjust an aggregate, unweighted rating.

The average rating of a merchant 906 may be used in several othermechanisms, e.g., in the determination of the price charged to themerchant 906 for the services of the agent 902 (thus encouragingmerchants 906 to give better service to customers 904), as describedsupra with reference to FIG. 2.

A Mechanism for Use with Automatic Micro-Payments

With reference now to FIG. 11, a system 1100 that employs points tofacilitate transactions between a customer and a merchant is depicted.Generally, the system 1100 can include a points account 1004 that isassociated with a customer 904. The points in a points account 1004 canbe spent by way of a transaction 1102 with a merchant 906 ₁-906 _(P),referred to either collectively or singularly as merchant 906. Thetransaction 1102 can be, e.g., an automatic “micro-payment”, and thusprovide a solution to conventional micro-payment difficulties. Forexample, there are various publishers who publish premium content.Typically, this premium content is not visible to users for free, sousers are currently required to pay a periodic subscription charge toview the premium content. Some publishers may make their contentviewable on per article or per view basis, yet conventionally this hasbeen inconvenient and expensive. It has been inconvenient because a userhas to pay by means of monetary instruments (e.g., a credit card) whoseinformation the user has to provide. It has been expensive because somekind of transaction fee is generally charged for the use of the monetaryinstrument. Therefore, especially in the case of micro-payments, evensmall transaction fees are inefficient and/or infeasible.

In accordance with the foregoing, the points account 1004 can providefor automatic payments (e.g., transaction 1102) for products or servicesof the merchant 906. For example, if a customer 904 clicks on a link toview premium content provided by the merchant 906, the customer 904 canbe shown the price in terms of points in the points account 1004required to view the premium content. It is to be appreciated that thecustomer 904 may be required to log into his or her points account 1004before being displayed the price, or a cookie residing on the customer904 machine may do this automatically as described supra. The customer904 can then decide whether or not to view the premium content by makingan appropriate selection, e.g., choosing “yes” or “no” and, thus, insome cases, have access to premium content with a single click. It is tobe appreciated that if the customer 904 does not have sufficient pointsin the points account 1004, then an alternate means of payment can beprovided.

It is also to be appreciated that the customer 904 can choose higherlevels of security when being associated with the points account 1004.For example, when the customer 904 agrees to purchase the premiumcontent by way of transaction 1102, a CAPTCHA can be displayed. As isknown in the art, a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test toTell Computers and Humans Apart) can be a short puzzle that is easy tosolve for humans but much harder to solve for computers. Solving such apuzzle is evidence that the point account is not accessed by anautomatic software script. Additional security can be chosen as well,for example, by requiring the customer 904 to log into the pointsaccount 1004 prior to a transaction 1102 and/or requiring the customerto re-enter the points account 1004 password.

Although the micro-payment provided by the transaction 1102 has beendescribed in connection with viewing premium content (e.g., a singledocument such as an article from a premium content publisher), it shouldbe understood that many other applications can be employed. For example,the transaction 1102 can be for the purchase of other premium contentsuch as Electronic Greeting Cards, Electronic Stationery, Music, Video,Other media content, Electronic Game Content etc. In addition, thetransaction 1102 can be used for paying a fine for a late return of abook to a university or community library. In accordance therewith, whathas been labeled as merchant 906 can be an advertiser, a vendor, premiumcontent providers, an SEP, a library, and/or substantially any entitythat can employ transaction 1102. It is to be further understood thattransaction 1102 can also be a deposit to the points account, such as amicro-payment for refunds, credit balances or the like.

A Mechanism to Suppress Publisher Click Fraud Based on the BasicMechanism

Another form of click fraud exists in conventional systems known aspublisher click fraud. Publisher click fraud occurs when the publisherof, e.g., a website with ads clicks on his own website ads to obtainpayments from an advertiser. The mechanism described herein can allowestimations of relative conversion rates (e.g., clicks intotransactions) on various websites. Since publisher click fraud reducesconversion rates, a mechanism to estimate the relative performances ofpublishers can provide valuable information in order to remedy publisherclick fraud.

A Mechanism to Estimate the Relative Performance of Ad-Publisher toFairly Distribute the Ad-Earnings and to Prevent Click Fraud

Some of the difficulties of fairly distributing ad-earnings exist inother forms of media as well, such as print media, radio, television,and the like. These difficulties can exist wherever there is adbrokering. For example, an ad broker may collect ads and distribute themover many different print media, e.g., different magazines. This servicecould be very important for regional and small scale magazines that donot have market power to attract big label ads. Such magazines couldnegotiate with an ad broker to get big label ads in order, e.g., toincrease the profitability of small scale magazines by way of adrevenues from the big label advertiser. One major issue with thisbrokering model is determining how the broker should share the revenue,obtained from the advertiser, with the publisher. Sharing the revenuebased on the number of copies distributed seems a likely scheme.

However, this scheme could be inequitable because a distribution of,say, ten thousand magazines in one location might attract substantiallysmaller business for an advertiser from a distribution of ten thousandmagazines in a second location due primarily to population density andother demographic variations. There could be various other reasons aswell, for example, the content could differ and hence a totallydifferent audience is attracted by these magazines. One solution to thisdifficulty is to print different contact information on ads (that areotherwise identical) appearing in different magazines. As one example, adifferent phone number could be printed on the ads such that thepublisher of the ad with one particular phone number can be paid on apay-per-call basis, similar to the PPC scheme. Hence, a publisher has anincentive to fraudulently induce calls to the number associated with anad appearing in its own magazine. This type of publisher fraud can alsoapply to radio, television as well as the Internet advertising space inthe form of publisher click fraud.

Referring now to FIG. 12, a system 1200 that can accurately estimate theperformance of an ad publisher and/or mitigates click fraud is depicted.Generally, the system 1200 can include an ad distribution network host1202 that distributes 1204 an ad 1206 associated with a merchant 1208 toat least one ad publisher 1210 ₁-1210 _(Q), referred to eithercollectively or singularly as publisher 1210. The publisher 1210 chooseto publish 1216 the ad 1206, e.g., in exchange for ad revenues from themerchant 1208. By way of illustration and not limitation, the adrevenues can be derived from a PPC scheme, a pay-per-impression schemeor the like. The system 1200 can also include a performance rankingcomponent 1212 that can estimate a performance ratio 1214 for the ad1206 based upon the performance (e.g., conversion ratio or the number ofclicks on the ad 1218 that result in a transaction) the ad 1206 achieveswhen it is advertised 1216 by the publishers 1210. Accordingly, theamount the merchant 1208 pays to the publisher 1210 for displaying 1216the ad 1206 can also be based upon how well the ad 1206 performs.

In the Internet ad space, an ad-distribution network is typically run bya host 1202, and the host 1202 generally distributes 1204 advertisements1206 to various publishers 1210. These publishers 1210 can then display1216 the ads 1206 and in return the host shares the advertisementearnings with the publishers. Currently the advertisers (e.g., merchant1208) are commonly charged either based upon a PPC scheme, in which aprice can be charged each time an ad is clicked 1218; or a perimpression scheme, in which a price can be charged for each instance anad that is displayed 1216. Regardless of which scheme is employed, thereare number of difficulties that can arise and mechanisms to mitigatethese difficulties.

Typically, different publishers 1210 publish 1216 (e.g., on a website)different kinds of content, and each type of content may attract widelydifferent kinds of audiences. Moreover, these audiences may react toadvertisement quite differently, so a click 1218 on an advertisement1206 published 1216 on one publisher's website 1210 could have adifferent value than a click 1218 on the same advertisement 1206published 1216 on another publisher's website 1210. For example, onepublisher 1210 may be much more successful than a second publisher 1210in producing ad-clicks 1218 and/or purchases from the advertiser, eventhough both publishers 1210 display the same ad 1206. The reason thefirst publisher 1210 is more successful could be because the audiencefor first publisher's website 1210 can be easily convinced to buyproducts and/or services on the Internet. Another reason might be thefirst publisher's 1210 audience has a natural propensity to purchaseproducts and/or services on the Internet. Additionally or alternatively,the first publisher 1210 may be doing a better job displaying 1216 orotherwise marketing the ads 1206 and/or the underlying products and/orservices. Accordingly, there could be several factors that affect theperformance of a particular advertisement 1206 on a publisher's website1210. One difficulty is that, previously, there has been no effectiveway of estimating this performance, and thus, no good way of assessingthe value of ad space provided by a publisher 1210 relative to anotherpublisher 1210. Rather, one publisher 1210 charges a similar amount ofmoney for a click 1218 or an impression as another better or worseperforming publisher 1210.

Moreover, this situation can lead to publisher click fraud, as describedabove, which is a second difficulty. Since publishers 1210 are gettingequal money for their clicks 1218 (or impressions) irrespective of therelative value per click (or impression), there exists an incentive forthe publisher 1210 to increase the clicks 1218 on the ads 1206 published1216 on their website. Hence, a publisher 1210, or other interestedparty could abuse this situation by, e.g., running software scripts tofraudulently click 1218 the ads 1206 on their website (or similarly,refresh scripts to create many impressions). Alternatively oradditionally, individuals can be hired, e.g., from developing countries,to manually perform the same tasks as the aforementioned scripts.

One solution to the first difficulty can be to estimate the relativeperformance ratio 1214 of the ads 1206 on each publisher's website 1210separately. It should be noted that an absolute estimate of theperformance is not needed because the advertiser (e.g., merchant 1208)can adjust the bid or price the advertiser is willing to pay for theadvertisement 1206 based upon an approximation of the performance ratio1214 of the publisher 1210. Hence, estimating the relative performance1214 is sufficient. For an example, assume two publishers 1210 display1216 the same advertisement 1206 and each publisher 1210 produces oneclick 1218 (e.g., from one of the publisher's 1210 user base). If, e.g.,the merchant 1208 is paying $1 per click 1218 and 75% of the click priceis shared with the publisher 1210, then, in conventional systems thepublisher will receive 75 cents for each click 1218 on the ad 1206.However, if it is known that a click 1218 on an ad 1206 displayed 1216on one publisher's website 1210 is about twice as likely to produce adesirable transaction for the merchant 1208 as a click 1218 on the samead 1206 displayed 1216 on a second publisher's website 1210, then a moreaccurate relative performance evaluation can be made. In that case the75% revenue ad splitting can be modified by the merchant 1208 based onthe ratio 1214 of the estimated relative performance. In this example,the former publisher 1210 can be paid $1 for the click 1216 and thelatter publisher 1210 can be paid 50 cents per click 1216. Accordingly,what is needed is a way to measure the relative performance of theclicks 1216.

In accordance with the claimed subject matter, one way to measure therelative performance ratio 1214 of the clicks 1218 and/or theperformance of a publisher's website 1210 relative to another is byemploying a points mechanism as described supra. For example, themerchant 1208 can distribute points to a customer as a result of atransaction (e.g., a valuable action for merchant 1208 performed by auser). Thus, the average number of points that are distributed by themerchant 1208 due to a click 1218 on the ad 1206 shown 1216 on apublisher's website 1210 can represent the relative performance ratio1214 of the click 1218 on the ad 1206 displayed 1216 on the publisher'swebsite 1210. Such a scheme also mitigates abuses due to publisher clickfraud because if the publisher 1210 is producing fraudulent clicks 1218then the relative performance ratio 1214 of the clicks 1218 on thepublisher's website 1210 goes down. Hence, any benefit the publisher1210 may get due to fraudulent clicks 1218 is mitigated or entirelyneutralized.

Referring now to FIG. 13, there is illustrated a block diagram of anexemplary computer system operable to execute the disclosedarchitecture. In order to provide additional context for various aspectsof the claimed subject matter, FIG. 13 and the following discussion areintended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computingenvironment 1300 in which the various aspects of the claimed subjectmatter can be implemented. For example, various components of thesystems and/or aspects thereof described supra can be implemented by wayof the system 1300. Additionally, while the claimed subject matter hasbeen described above in the general context of computer-executableinstructions that may run on one or more computers, those skilled in theart will recognize that the claimed subject matter also can beimplemented in combination with other program modules and/or as acombination of hardware and software.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, datastructures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the inventive methods can be practiced with other computer systemconfigurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computersystems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, as well as personalcomputers, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can beoperatively coupled to one or more associated devices.

The illustrated aspects of the claimed subject matter may also bepracticed in distributed computing environments where certain tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

A computer typically includes a variety of computer-readable media.Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessedby the computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media,removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer-readable media can comprise computer storage mediaand communication media. Computer storage media can include bothvolatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implementedin any method or technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules orother data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can be accessed by the computer.

Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includesany information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the anyof the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

With reference again to FIG. 13, the exemplary environment 1300 forimplementing various aspects of the claimed subject matter includes acomputer 1302, the computer 1302 including a processing unit 1304, asystem memory 1306 and a system bus 1308. The system bus 1308 couples tosystem components including, but not limited to, the system memory 1306to the processing unit 1304. The processing unit 1304 can be any ofvarious commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors andother multi-processor architectures may also be employed as theprocessing unit 1304.

The system bus 1308 can be any of several types of bus structure thatmay further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memorycontroller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofcommercially available bus architectures. The system memory 1306includes read-only memory (ROM) 1310 and random access memory (RAM)1312. A basic input/output system (BIOS) is stored in a non-volatilememory 1310 such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basicroutines that help to transfer information between elements within thecomputer 1302, such as during start-up. The RAM 1312 can also include ahigh-speed RAM such as static RAM for caching data.

The computer 1302 further includes an internal hard disk drive (HDD)1314 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), which internal hard disk drive 1314 may also beconfigured for external use in a suitable chassis (not shown), amagnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 1316, (e.g., to read from or write to aremovable diskette 1318) and an optical disk drive 1320, (e.g., readinga CD-ROM disk 1322 or, to read from or write to other high capacityoptical media such as the DVD). The hard disk drive 1314, magnetic diskdrive 1316 and optical disk drive 1320 can be connected to the systembus 1308 by a hard disk drive interface 1324, a magnetic disk driveinterface 1326 and an optical drive interface 1328, respectively. Theinterface 1324 for external drive implementations includes at least oneor both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interfacetechnologies. Other external drive connection technologies are withincontemplation of the claimed subject matter.

The drives and their associated computer-readable media providenonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For the computer 1302, the drives and mediaaccommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digital format.Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to aHDD, a removable magnetic diskette, and a removable optical media suchas a CD or DVD, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat other types of media which are readable by a computer, such as zipdrives, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, cartridges, and thelike, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment, andfurther, that any such media may contain computer-executableinstructions for performing the methods of the claimed subject matter.

A number of program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 1312,including an operating system 1330, one or more application programs1332, other program modules 1334 and program data 1336. All or portionsof the operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also becached in the RAM 1312. It is appreciated that the claimed subjectmatter can be implemented with various commercially available operatingsystems or combinations of operating systems.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 1302 throughone or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 1338 and apointing device, such as a mouse 1340. Other input devices (not shown)may include a microphone, an IR remote control, a joystick, a game pad,a stylus pen, touch screen, or the like. These and other input devicesare often connected to the processing unit 1304 through an input deviceinterface 1342 that is coupled to the system bus 1308, but can beconnected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, an IEEE 1394serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, etc.

A monitor 1344 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 1308 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1346. Inaddition to the monitor 1344, a computer typically includes otherperipheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.

The computer 1302 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 1348. The remotecomputer(s) 1348 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, apersonal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer1302, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device1350 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted includewired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 1352 and/orlarger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 1354. Such LAN and WANnetworking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, andfacilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all ofwhich may connect to a global communications network, e.g., theInternet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1302 isconnected to the local network 1352 through a wired and/or wirelesscommunication network interface or adapter 1356. The adapter 1356 mayfacilitate wired or wireless communication to the LAN 1352, which mayalso include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicatingwith the wireless adapter 1356.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 1302 can includea modem 1358, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN1354, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN1354, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 1358, which can beinternal or external and a wired or wireless device, is connected to thesystem bus 1308 via the serial port interface 1342. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 1302, orportions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device1350. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexemplary and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers can be used.

The computer 1302 is operable to communicate with any wireless devicesor entities operatively disposed in wireless communication, e.g., aprinter, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portable dataassistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment or locationassociated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk, news stand,restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi and Bluetooth™wireless technologies. Thus, the communication can be a predefinedstructure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoccommunication between at least two devices.

Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, allows connection to the Internet from acouch at home, a bed in a hotel room, or a conference room at work,without wires. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology similar to that used in acell phone that enables such devices, e.g., computers, to send andreceive data indoors and out; anywhere within the range of a basestation. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11(a, b,g, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. AWi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to theInternet, and to wired networks (which use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet).Wi-Fi networks operate in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands, atan 11 Mbps (802.11a) or 54 Mbps (802.11b) data rate, for example, orwith products that contain both bands (dual band), so the networks canprovide real-world performance similar to the basic 10BaseT wiredEthernet networks used in many offices.

Referring now to FIG. 14, there is illustrated a schematic block diagramof an exemplary computer compilation system operable to execute thedisclosed architecture. The system 1400 includes one or more client(s)1402. The client(s) 1402 can be hardware such as a digital camera withcomputer interface support and/or software (e.g., threads, processes,computing devices). The client(s) 1402 can house cookie(s) and/orassociated contextual information by employing the claimed subjectmatter, for example.

The system 1400 also includes one or more server(s) 1404. The server(s)1404 can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes,computing devices). The servers 1404 can house threads to performtransformations by employing the claimed subject matter, for example.One possible communication between a client 1402 and a server 1404 canbe in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two ormore computer processes. The data packet may include a cookie and/orassociated contextual information, for example. The system 1400 includesa communication framework 1406 (e.g., a global communication networksuch as the Internet) that can be employed to facilitate communicationsbetween the client(s) 1402 and the server(s) 1404.

Communications can be facilitated via a wired (including optical fiber)and/or wireless technology. The client(s) 1402 are operatively connectedto one or more client data store(s) 1408 that can be employed to storeinformation local to the client(s) 1402 (e.g., cookie(s) and/orassociated contextual information). Similarly, the server(s) 1404 areoperatively connected to one or more server data store(s) 1410 that canbe employed to store information local to the servers 1404.

What has been described above includes examples of the claimed subjectmatter. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivablecombination of components or methodologies for purposes of describingthe claimed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in the art mayrecognize that many further combinations and permutations of the claimedsubject matter are possible. Accordingly, the claimed subject matter isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in eitherthe detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to beinclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising”is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

1. A computer implemented system that accurately estimates theperformance of an ad-publisher and/or mitigates click-fraud, comprising:an ad distribution network host that distributes an ad associated with amerchant to a publisher, the publisher displays the ad on a website; anda performance ranking component that estimates a performance ratio forthe ad.
 2. The system of claim 1, the publisher displays the ad on thewebsite in exchange for a percentage of advertising revenues.
 3. Thesystem of claim 2, the advertising revenues are derived from at leastone of a pay-per-click (PPC) scheme and a pay-per-impression scheme. 4.The system of claim 2, the percentage of the advertising revenues isadjusted according to the performance ratio.
 5. The system of claim 1,the performance ratio is based upon a percentage of transactions betweena customer and a merchant that resulted from a click on the ad.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, the percentage of transactions that resulted from aclick on the ad is determined by a points distribution mechanism.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, the performance ratio is based upon a percentage oftransactions between a customer and a merchant that resulted from animpression of the ad.
 8. The system of claim 7, the percentage oftransactions that resulted from an impression of the ad is determined bya points distribution mechanism.
 9. The system of claim 1, theperformance ratio is a relative value determined by comparing aneffectiveness of the ad on a first publisher website relative to asecond publisher website.
 10. The system of claim 9, the effectivenessis determined by comparing a number of transactions that occurred as aresult of an ad displayed.
 11. The system of claim 10, the effectivenessis determined by comparing a number of transactions that occurred as aresult of a click on the ad displayed.
 12. The system of claim 1, theperformance ratio is a value determined by an absolute scale.
 13. Acomputer implemented method for accurately estimating the performance ofan ad-publisher, comprising: distributing an ad associated with amerchant to a first website and a second website; displaying the ad onthe first website and on the second website; verifying a transactionbetween the merchant and a customer that resulted from clicking the ad;and calculating a performance ratio for at least one of the firstwebsite and the second website.
 14. The method of claim 13, theperformance ratio is based upon a percentage, the percentage is a numberof clicks on the ad displayed on a particular website that resulted inthe transaction.
 15. The method of claim 14, the performance ratio isbased upon the percentage for the first website relative to thepercentage for the second website.
 16. The method of claim 15, thedisplaying the ad is in exchange for remuneration.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, the remuneration is based at least in part upon theperformance ratio.
 18. The method of claim 16, the remuneration is theproduct of a PPC and the performance ratio a particular website.
 19. Themethod of claim 14, the performance ratio is based upon the percentagefor a particular website relative to an expected value.
 20. A computerimplemented system for accurately estimating the performance of anad-publisher and/or mitigating click fraud, comprising: computerimplemented means for hosting an ad associated with a merchant on afirst website and on a second website; computer implemented means forverifying a transaction between the merchant and a customer thatresulted from a click-through of the ad; computer implemented means fordetermining a percentage of click-throughs from a certain website thatresult in a transaction; computer implemented means for calculating aperformance ratio for at least one of the first website and the secondwebsite based upon the percentage.